Guitarist John Scofield and bassist Dave Holland, two of jazz’s contemporary masters, have played together over the years in contexts including work with Herbie Hancock and Joe Henderson and a spirited co-led band with Joe Lovano and Al Foster called ScoLoHoFo. Memories of Home is their first duo album.
John Scofield takes up the story: “I honestly don’t recall when or how we first discussed playing duo together. It was quite a while ago and we had an entire tour scheduled that was scrapped in 2020 due to the pandemic. We did it in late 2021 and it worked well. We did a second tour in 2024 and the idea of recording was a natural conclusion. The record, like our live shows, features tunes each of us composed, some new, some old. We share decades of common references musically. The similarities and differences in our approaches make for a more interesting collaboration, I think.”
Among those common musical references, Miles Davis looms large. Scofield’s tenure with Miles from 1982-1985 had been of decisive importance for the guitarist, much as Holland’s time with Davis had in the period 1968-70. Miles is one of the “icons” invoked in Scofield’s composition “Icons at the Fair”, which opens Memories of Home. The tune was inspired by Herbie Hancock’s arrangement of “Scarborough Fair” on The New Standard – an album on which both John and Dave played – Scofield taking its chords to construct something new, with a melody alluding to a Milesian trumpet phrase. It’s a piece John introduced with his Combo 66 quartet; the duo version has its own sense of dynamic drive.
Holland’s “Mr B” is a tribute to his first double bass hero, Ray Brown, which Dave previously recorded on Points of View in 1997. Its blues feel and lithe sense of swing are ideally suited to Scofield’s guitar artistry, and Holland’s bass solo conveys some of the sense of joy that informed the playing of the tune’s dedicatee. “Not for Nothin’” and “You I Love” also update pieces premiered on Holland’s early ECM recordings – the former the title track of Dave’s 2001 quintet album, the latter first heard on 1984’s Jumpin’ In, effectively the beginning of Holland’s life as a bandleader.
Title piece “Memories of Home” reintroduces a Holland tune originally documented on a 1980s collaboration with progressive bluegrass musicians Vassar Clements and John Hartford. The tune’s gentle contours encourage Scofield to give voice to the country side of his playing. Among the most immediately identifiable of jazz instrumentalists, Scofield and Holland have always been open to influences beyond the tradition.
“Meant to Be” is a Scofield classic, which the guitarist has played in line-ups from trio to the big band of Mike Gibbs. The poignant ballad “Easy for You”, another well-known piece, brings forth tender and subtle playing from both men, while the angular melody of “Mine Are Blues” is given momentum by Holland’s hard-driving bass.
John Scofield’s leader dates on ECM include the freewheeling double album Uncle John’s Band (recorded 2022) where tunes from Miles Davis, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the Grateful Dead were incorporated alongside original pieces, and transformed into compelling vehicles for improvisation. The autobiographical character of the solo album called just John Scofield (2021) found the guitarist reflecting on formative influences that included Buddy Holly and Hank Williams. “Scofield’s first ever solo recording is as full-hearted, personal and openly expressive as he’s ever sounded. In it, he goes back to his earliest musical loves – not just jazz, but rock, folk and country ” wrote The Wire. The trio album Swallow Tales (2019), meanwhile, focused on the compositions of long time musical associate Steve Swallow, as played by Scofield’s trio with Swallow and Bill Stewart.
Other recordings with John Scofield on ECM include two albums with Marc Johnson’s Bass Desires quartet, with Bill Frisell and Peter Erskine (1985 and 1987), as well as the Grammy-nominated Saudades by Trio Beyond, featuring organist Larry Goldings and drummer Jack DeJohnette revisiting the repertoire of Tony Williams’ Lifetime.
Dave Holland’s recording history on ECM spans a very wide range of music. Most recently heard with Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem on After the Last Sky (recorded 2024), he first appeared on the label in 1971, with recordings including A.R.C. with Chick Corea and Barry Altschul, and Music from Two Basses, with Barre Phillips. Holland’s Conference of the Birds (1972), with Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers counts now as a milestone of the era, and through the 1970s, Dave played on many recordings that have similarly attained the status of jazz classics. Among them: Circle’s Paris Concert, Kenny Wheeler’s Gnu High and Dear Wan, Tomasz Stanko’s Balladyna, Gateway with John Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette, Sam Rivers’s Contrasts. In 1977, Holland recorded the solo bass album Emerald Tears, and in 1982 the solo cello album Life Cycle. From the 1980s onwards a primary focus was on his own groups, whose recordings brought younger players including Steve Coleman (on Jumpin’ In, Seeds of Time, The Razor’s Edge and more) and Chris Potter (Prime Directive, Not for Nothin’, Extended Play) to the attention of a wider public. What Goes Around by the Dave Holland Big Big Band won a Grammy Award in 2003.
Memories of Home was recorded at NRS Studios in Catskill, New York, in August 2024.
